I visited a newly opened restaurant today — it’s part of a well-known brand that just launched a new branch in our Area. While checking their Google Maps listing, I noticed the phone number was missing. I confirmed the correct number directly at the venue and submitted an edit to add it.
Unfortunately, the edit was rejected, even though the number is 100% accurate. I’m curious to know if others have faced similar issues, especially with newly opened places.
Are there any best practices or tips to ensure such edits are accepted? I’d love to help keep the information accurate for everyone.
Hello @Anaswara555 welcome to the Local Guides Connect community!
Did you check, whether the listing was claimed by the owner(s)? If so, I believe it has priority if they changed the number by them self. If you don’t see a button saying something similar as “Register as owner”, the owner already did claim it.
This is an example of a listing which was not claimed yet (in German language):
The only thing coming to my mind is contacting the owner. They might not be aware the phone number is missing and that they can do more than other users. Or include it in a review or update by visitors.
Yes, I also spoke to the owner since today was the restaurant’s inauguration. I was honestly a bit sad to see that their Google Maps listing didn’t have a phone number — especially on the opening day.
The owner told me he created the business listing himself and had added the number while setting it up, but it seems it hasn’t been approved yet.
I saw, the owner did writ an “Opening soon” under “Updates by the owner”. They could edit it and add the phone number and/or you could add an “Update by visitors”
Thank you for pointing that out!
Yes, I noticed the “Opening soon” update by the owner too. That’s a good idea — I’ll suggest to them that they update the post and include the phone number there.
Also, I didn’t realize I could add an “Update by visitors” — I’ll definitely do that to help others find the contact number until it gets officially approved.
In India Google has taken extra steps to make sure a phone number should be accurate, due to that only claimed business owners can add their mobile number through Google Business Profile , after that they have to submit IN Phone Number Appeal Form
@Anaswara555
When a Local Guide add a phone number, the verification is made by Google Maps by checking if the phone number is available in a public directory and associated with the name of the business.
The addition of a phone number has been restricted because it was widely used as a way to scam customers (e.g. people order via phone and the order is hijacked somewhere else. People think they have ordered from a restaurant and instead the order is delivered by someone else, scamming both the restaurant and the customers. This is even more true if the phone is a cell phone, so a mobile phone can only be added by the business, after the listing has been claimed, they use the link suggested by @VishalSaini
This will not help, as it can be interpreted as a way to reinforce the scam attempt
That’s fine, @WilfriedB , and usually it can help as a kind of “fact checking”, and we’re not used to “think as a scammer”
In the first version of Connect (2017, if I remember correctly) there was a quite long thread about the florist scam in London. Long story short: a group of scammers changed the phone number of a lot of florists in the city center. They were receiving the orders, and delivering the flowers (usually with very bad quality). When the customers were going to the florists for a replacement the story of the scam becomes public
